LFW: TOM FORD S/S 2015

Tom Ford, what have you done?

I’ll tell you what he’s done. He’s brought back 90’s rocker chick vibes and quite possibly made them more cool and desirable than they were the first time around.

Let’s be honest, we’d be disappointed if Tom didn’t do something well out of the mainstream. We’ve never asked Tom to be mainstream, even though his creations always manages to impact that area of fashion rather significantly. We expect flash, bang, and sizzle and Ford always manages to give us what we didn’t know we wanted.

This season, it’s dark tones, heavy eye makeup, punked out hair and, naturally, lots of sequins. I’ve often wondered if Ford owns a stake in the company that makes sequins since he manages to use so very many of them. This is a rock-and-roll glamour look that brings to mind just about every bad girl rocker since Joan Jett, and maybe even a few before her.

Of course, you realize this means silhouettes are going to be so tight one can’t eat a marshmallow for two weeks before putting on a pair of these pants. That whole heroin chic look was big back in the 90s and these clothes play to that style in a frightening way. I doubt Tom intends to encourage any dangerous habits as far as food is concerned, but if your size is into the double digits then this probably isn’t going to be a good look for you.

What stands out here are the leather jackets, the bell bottomed pants, and the impossibly high platform shoes. These are super strong elements and the leather jackets are the one element here that actually have some accessibility to them. Just wearing one of these jackets is going to increase one’s coolness level by a factor of 70 or so. Bell bottoms are something we’ve seen a couple of other times this season, so that’s not too surprising, either. The platform shoes? Well, you might want to dig some out and start practicing walking in them now.

The bulk of the collection runs pretty dark. Contrary to what is being said on social media, they are not all head-to-toe black, though there are certainly some of those choices available. Dark blue and dark green may actually be more appealing in a lot of ways. There’s also a silver and a gold dress, both well covered in those sequins. Then, there’s that white dress. Do we dare call it a wedding dress? It’s missing some primary components. I rather doubt one wears this dress to get married in a church.

Tom hasn’t forgotten to be a bit cheeky with his collection, either. To say that there is a lot of sheer puts him in the same company as roughly 80 percent of other designers showing this week. What matters is where the sheer is, where it isn’t, and what’s going on underneath and above. There are some leather straps that give a fetish feel to an ensemble or two, but it’s the sequin pasties that are getting all the attention. Expect those things to sell out before they even have a chance to hit store shelves. If you’re not ordering yours right now, you’re not going to get any.

We’re going to see these looks all over the place: on stages, on red carpets, in high end night clubs, and a lot of other places in between. This is not one of those seasons where the reaction is, “That was cool but I don’t know where I’d wear it.” No, you know where you’d wear it: every place you possibly could.